This award, provided by members of the Whitacre College of Engineering Dean’s Council, is named in memory of James A. McAuley, an active member of the Dean’s Council, and a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer.

Helm competed for this honor and was selected because of her outstanding academic
achievements, honors, activities, interests and aspirations. She has a 3.93 GPA and
will graduate Summa Cum Laude with Honors in May with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. Amber is a 2010 Weatherford High School graduate and the daughter of Mark Helm and
Lila Deakle.

As a freshman, she immediately became involved in undergraduate research projects
in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry under Dominick Casadonte, the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She worked with
sonochemistry and its applications for the creation of batteries and hydrogen fuel
cells.

After completing a study abroad program at the Texas Tech campus in Seville, Spain,
she began her sophomore year as an Honors College mentor and joined two student organizations:
Alpha Omega Epsilon (A.O.E.) and the Engineering Ambassadors. A.O.E. is an international professional and social engineering sorority that strives
to encourage self-confidence, professionalism and motivation among females in engineering.
As an Engineering Ambassador, she assisted with college events, prospective student
visits, outreach activities in the community and recruiting for the college.

During the summer after her sophomore year, she worked for Encana Oil and Gas in Plano,
where she was a drilling engineer intern. This experience with drilling rigs and the
mechanics and procedures for drilling deep, high pressure, horizontal wells piqued
her interest in the upstream oil and gas industry. The following summer she worked
for Anadarko Petroleum Company in Denver, in the field and office as a production
intern.

"It took friends and family to encourage me and help keep me grounded when I wanted
to give up." - Amber Helm

Helm currently is ending her year-long tenure as the president of A.O.E., a position
that she said she has enjoyed because she has had the opportunity to encourage younger
students, make lifelong friends and see the organization grow nearly three times larger.

Reflecting on the challenges of a demanding chemical engineering program, Helm admits,
“It took friends and family to encourage me and help keep me grounded when I wanted
to give up. It took professors, classmates and my sorority sisters to keep me on the
right track and focused.”

Helm has accepted a full-time position with Anadarko as a production engineer in Kermit,
and will begin work after graduation. She plans to remain involved at Texas Tech after
graduation as an alumnae advisor to A.O.E., a campus recruiter for Anadarko, and member
of the Texas Tech engineering young alumni organization, Young Guns.